fect it at once, he might be some years about it, and thereby occasion some of these gods to be deified sooner than others.

y

IV. After the hero-deities were received, a new set of living animals were consecrated to them; and cyphers and hieroglyphic characters were invented to express their divinity and worship. The bull called Apis was made sacred to Osiris, and likewise the hawk: the ass, crocodile, and sea-horse were sacred to Typho: Anubis was said to be the dog-star, and the dog was sacred to him ; and a very religious regard was paid to this animal, until Cambyses killed the Apis. After that, some of the flesh of Apis being thrown to the dogs, and they readily attempting to eat it, they fell under great censure, for desiring to profane themselves by cating the flesh of so sacred an animal ; but this accident did not happen until about A. M. 3480. The serpent or dragon was consecrated to Nephthe, and other suitable animals to other gods. All this seems to have been the invention of Taautus; for so Philo represents it, making him the author of the divinity of the serpent, or dragon, which was sacred to Nephthe; and also hinting, that he invented the hieroglyphic characters, for which the Egyptians

f

y Plutarch de Işide & Osiride. 2 Id. ibid.

a Id. ibid.

See Prideaux Connect. vol. i. b. 3.

* Την μεν εν Δρακοντος φυσιν και την Οφεων αυτός εξεθείασεν ο Τα αυτό, και μετ' αυτον Φοινικές τε και Αιγύπλιοι. Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. 1. c. 10.

were so famous; taking his patterns from the animals, which had been consecrated to the luminaries of heaven. Philo does not sufficiently distinguish the first Hermes or Taautus from the second; but ascribes some particulars, which were true of the first Mercury only, to the person he speaks of. Yet what he hints about the sacred animals and hieroglyphics must be ascribed to the second Mercury; for if, as I have formerly observed," the religion of the Egyptians was not corrupted in the days of Abraham, the first Taautus must be dead long before the sacred animals were appointed. And I may here add that hieroglyphics were not in use in his days; for the pillars upon which he left his memoirs, were inscribed, not in hicroglyphics, but ιερογραφικος γραμμασι, in the sacred letters, in letters which were capable of being made use of by a translator, who turned what was written in these letters out of one language into another. The hieroglyphical inscriptions of the Egyptians are pretty full of the figures of birds, fishes, beasts, and men, with a few letters sometimes between them. Now this alone is sufficient to hint to us, that they could not come into use, before the animals represented in inscriptions of this sort, were become by allegory and mythology capable of expressing various things, by their having been variously used in the ceremonies of their religion.

8 Τα αυτο μιμησάμενος τον Ουρανόν, των θεών οψεις, Κρονστε και Δαγώνος και των λοιπων διετύπωσεν και τις ιεράς των τοιχείων xxgaxingas. Id. ibid. Vol. i. b. 5.

See vol. i. b. 4.

I

It may perhaps be said that the Egyptians had two sorts of hieroglyphics, as Porphyry has accurately observed, calling the one sort 'Ιερογλυφικα κοινολογεμενα nata now, i. e. hieroglyphics communicating their meaning to us by an imitation of the thing designed; and the other sort, Συμβολικα αλληγορεμένα κατά τινας Ayus, i. c. Figures conveying their meaning by alluding to some intricate mythologies. Perhaps it may be thought, that this latter sort of hierogryphics were probably invented about the times I am treating of; but that the former were in use long before, and being nothing else but a simple representation of things, by making their pictures or imitations, might be perhaps the first letters used by men. But to this I answer, 1. We have no reason to think that these hieroglyphics were so ancient as the first letters. 2. They would be but a very imperfect character; many, nay most occurrences could be represented by them only by halves. The Egyptians intermingled letters with their hieroglyphic., to fill up and connect sentences, and to express actions; and the first men must have had letters as well as pictures, or their pictures could have hinted only the ideas of visible objects; but there would have been much wanting in all inscriptions to give their full and true meaning. 3. This picture-character would have been unintelligible, unless men could be supposed to delineate the forms or pic

In lib. de Vit. Pythag. p. 12.

'These Hieroglyphics were something like Pythagoras precepts, they expressed one thing, but meant another. Plut. lib. de Iside & Osiride, p. 354.

tures, more accurately, than can well be imagined. The first painters and figure-drawers performed very rudely, and were frequently obliged to write underneath what their figures and pictures were, to enable those who saw them to know what was designed to be represented by them. The Egyptians drew the forms of their sacred animals but imperfectly, even in later ages; and I cannot doubt, but if we could see what they at first delineated for a bull, a dog, a cat, or a monkey, it would be difficult to tell which figure might be this or that, or whether any of their figures were any of them. Therefore to help the reader, they usually marked the sun and moon or some other characters, to denote what god the animal designed was sacred to; and then it was easier to guess without mistake, what the picture was, and what might be intended by it. Now something like this the men of the most ancient times must have done; for they cannot be supposed to be able to paint well enough to make draughts expressive of their meaning. They might invent and learn a rude character much sooner than they could acquire art enough to draw pictures ; and therefore it is most probable, that such a character was first invented and made use of. But, 3. Porphyry did not mean by the expression κοινολογεμενα κατα μίμησιν, that the characters he spoke of imitated the forms or figures of the things intended by them; for that was not the nois, which the ancient writers. ascribed to letters. Socrates gives us the opinion of the ancients upon this point, namely, that letters were like the syllables of which words were compounded, and expressed an imitation; for he uses that word (not

of the figure, or picture; but) of the sox or substance, power or meaning of the think designed by them. Thus he makes letters no more the pictures of things than the syllables of words are. The ancients were exceedingly philosophical in their accounts of both. words and letters. When a word or a sound was thought fully to express, according to their notions, the thing of which it was designed to be the name, then they called it the enw or picture of that thing. They apprehended that a word could not be compleatly expressive, unless it was compounded of letters well chosen to give it a sound suitable to the nature of the thing designed to be expressed by it; and when a word hit their fancy entirely in these respects, then they thought that the sound and letters of it expressed, imitated, or resembled the true image of the thing it stood for. All this may be collected from several passages of Plato upon this subject," and in this sense we must take Porphyry's expression; which will lead us to think that the letters he treats of were the Egyptian sacred letters, as I have formerly hinted from this very '

وال

- Ο δια των συλλαβών τε και γραμμάτων την εσίαν των πραγμάτων απομιμεμενος το 5 μ.. Plato in Cratylo, or in other words he says, Δήλωμα συλλάβαις και γραμμασι ονομα εςι. Ibid. η Ουκαν ο μεν αποδίδες παντα καλα τα γραμματα-ωσπερ εν τον ζωγραφημασία και τας εικόνας αποδίδωσιν. Ο δε η προτίθεις η αφαιρών γράμματα, εικόνας μεν εργάζεται και στον, άλλα πονηρας-ωστες και Δεκα, η στις βάλει αλλά αριθμος, εαν αδέλης τι η προσθη Έτερος ευθύς γεγονε-Ει μελλει καλώς κείσθαι το όνομα, τα προσε xovla de aura pappaтa EX See Plat. Cratyl. Edit. Ficini, p. 295, 296, 297, &c.

See vol. i. book 4.